Turning river stories into the images

After the workshop, co-arranged by Kaunas 2022 team and Urban games and research lab “Laimikis.lt,” we have got a collection of short episodes, memories, recorded stories, and photos, which members of riverside communities have shared with us. Pretty much a diverse collection of everything concerning the activities by the river, from the past and the future 😊 

From the collected variety of stories and episodes, we have extracted shortly described situations, like “using slackline to go to the other bank of the river,” “building ancient ship for a festival of historical reconstruction,” “exploring riverside as a scientist,” “arranging a plein air by the river,” “camping by the river,” “going to the dance club on the other side of the river by boat,” etc. Now collected episodes looked like a set of ideas, what to do by the riverside. We have arranged a brief for an invited illustrator Inesa Jarkova from Kaunas, and here are the first sketches! 

The challenges and opportunities that visualization brings: it takes documentary episodes into an abstract, fictional world, which, as it turns, can provoke new insights. The illustration is less suitable for reconstructing a precise historical context but is productive for generating new ideas. Thus, detached from the historical contexts (which is a loss), illustrated episode diversify stories, i.e., action may take in various contexts, become a part of different stories. 

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